Photo by Tim Morgan

More city documents will be available on line under the terms of a bill unanimously passed by City Council yesterday. As budget talks continue to dominate the council's work behind closed doors, its open stated meeting was largely devoid of controversy as members also approved a measure bringing the city electrical code in line with national standards.</>

Of course the budget did intrude on the proceedings somewhat. Several members prefaced their vote on the other matters by calling for higher taxes on the most affluent New Yorkers, a measure city and state leaders have ruled out. And as the meeting began a number of people sitting in the temporary council chambers at the Emigrant Savings Bank Building began to speak. They were ordered to leave - and eventually did, shouting "Pay Your Fair Share" as they departed.

On the less contentious matter at hand, the council unanimously approved Intro 361, which would require the mayor's office to make all executive orders and most memoranda of understanding available on the city's website. The law will cover executive orders dating back to 1974 and memoranda entered since last July.

Up until now, the orders were accessible only through a Freedom of Information law request or sometimes through a third-party website. Although memoranda could occasionally be found on the website of a city agency, according to the council, "there is no uniform process or official place where the documents can be fund."

Buried in the Files

This is the case, Quinn said, even though these documents often deal with important matters. For example, she explained, a memorandum between the city and federal government bars private cars from Governors Island and so , restricts development of housing on the site,

By enacting the measure requiring posting of such documents, Quinn said, "we're making government more open and accessible to the public."

The bill would make all executive orders public but would not apply to memoranda where release would affect public safety. It also does not extent to memoranda where another jurisdiction that is party to it did not want it disclosed or to material not covered by Freedom of Information law.

Three good government groups -- Citizens Union, New York Public Interest Research Group and Common Cause New York -- expressed support for the measure.

"Today the City Council shines a bright light on the working of New York City," a statement issued by NYPIRG senior attorney Gene Russianoff said.

Improving the Code

The council also unanimously approved the bill on the electrical code, Intro 64-A.

Not only will the bill make sure New York complies with the code, Quinn said, it will help ensure "the code focuses n the needs of New Yorkers."

Photo by Boss Tweed

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn already has $3 million on hand if, as expected, she decides to run for mayor in 20103.

Pontificating pundits and political reporters cannot stop talking about the rise and fall of Donald Trump, Mitt Romney's flip-flops and Michele Bachmann's base. But closer to home, the political cognoscenti have already started to look beyond 2012 to the 2013 city elections.

With the often pivotal mayoral primary more than two years away and the general election a full 30 months in the future, candidates are already raising -- and spending -- money as savvy donors rush to shape the race from the get go. Political energy -- put on hold when the mayor and City Council extended term limits before the 2009 election -- is ready to burst.

So far, 18 members of the City Council, Comptroller John Liu and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio have raised money for 2013 bids for citywide office, a borough presidency or a City Council seat. Four additional council members have filed with the city Campaign Finance Board for 2013 but have not yet raised any money.

Information on the filings -- and much more -- is available on Councilpedia, Gotham Gazette's site monitoring local officials and the people who support them. Today, Gotham Gazette sharpens its focus on 2013 by sorting all contributions to sitting council members, de Blasio and Liu by sector, including: real estate, law, labor and so on. We list the major contributors for all these office holders, as well as which of their funders do business with the city or live outside it.

Already some patterns have emerged. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, a likely mayoral candidate with well over $3 million, has received much of that from the real estate and finance industries. One of her possible opponents -- de Blasio -- has garnered money from unions, many of whom were key to his 2009 election victory, and from fellow politicians, particularly from his home borough of Brooklyn.

Another likely mayoral candidate, Liu, has a large number of contributions in the $500 to $800 range -- many from people who work in the city but live outside of it. So far Liu has no donors who have given $2,475 or more.

Following the 2013 Money

To see the data, go to Councilpedia and click on the candidate who interests you. The 2009 donations are listed and sorted -- for every official. If a candidate has 2013 money already in hand, that will be indicated on his or her Councilpedia homepage. Councilpedia also lists campaign expenditures for both 2009 and 2013, along with member items for fiscal year 2011, voting records, bill's sponsored and more.

Councilpedia also allows readers to share what they know about the officials, their record and their donors. To comment on a donation or a candidate, click the discussion tab on the appropriate page and type in a comment, hot tip or other message. For more on how to comment on Councilpedia, see our tutorial.

Cash on Hand

Clicking through the data finds some trends -- and intriguing tidbits.

The candidates with the largest war chests -- Quinn and City Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr., who is eyeing a run for Queens borough president -- had raised substantial money for 2009 contests before the term-limits extension. Both have rolled that money into their 2013 bids.

Photo by New York City Council

City Councilmember Peter Vallone is nearing the $1 million mark in his fundraising for 2013.

Liu and de Blasio, though, both spent heavily to capture their respective posts in 2009 and have had to begin raising funds anew. So far, this time around, Liu has garnered $513,472 and de Blasio $392,576.

The biggest fundraiser, though according to the Campaign Finance Board, is U.S. Rep Anthony Weiner, with more than $5.1 million, much of that raised for his aborted 2009 mayoral run. He is not listed on Councilpedia, which currently includes only sitting council members and the two citywide officials enrolled in the campaign finance system -- in other words, not the Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who, of course was self-financed.

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, another presumed 2013 mayoral candidate has raised in excess of $1 million but also is not listed. Gotham Gazette hopes to add these candidates later this summer.

Other leading fundraisers for the upcoming election include Councilmember Joel Rivera, who thought about, and then decided against, running for Bronx borough president when Adolfo Carrion left the post to join the Obama administration; James Oddo, a likely candidate for Staten Island borough president; and Daniel Gardonick, who some think might run for Manhattan borough president if Stringer jumps into the mayoral race

.

Nuggets of Information

--Of the candidates listed on Councilpedia, Quinn led the pack in the number of intermediaries -- also known as bundlers -- who have collected donations for her campaign.

--De Blasio has collected substantial contributions from people who do business with the city, including $4,950 from Bear Stearns managing director W.P. McMullen and $2,500 from lobbyist Allison Lee.

--Despite being a Republican, Oddo has gotten donations from a number of labor unions, such as the United Federation of Teachers. Many of his biggest contributors are from Staten Island, including Stanley Friedman, the Bronx Democratic leader convicted of corruption who now works as general manager of the Staten Island Hotel, and Bruno Savo of Savo Brothers builders.

-- In addition to substantial contributions from the real estate industry, in 2006, Vallone got a $2,000 donation from then Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and $4,950 from the Mets that he can use toward his 2013 run.

--In his likely quest for a yet to be announced higher office, Brooklyn Councilmember Dominic Recchia has raised slightly more than $150,000. Of that more than $23,000 comes from people named Gindi, at least some of whom are executives and owners of the Century 21 stores. One -- Isaac Gindi -- has already given Recchia $8,750 for this election cycle.

--Councilmember Elizabeth Crowley has amassed about $32,000 for a likely re-election bid. The chair of the Council Committee on Fire and Safety -- and a staunch opponent of cuts to fire houses -- Crowley has received $2,750 from the Uniformed Firefights Association, $2,507 from the emergency medical service workers, and smaller donations from unions representing fire officers and fire alarm dispatchers.

--So far, Leroy Comrie may be more notable for the money he hasn’t received than for what he has. As chair of the powerful Land Use Committee, he would be expected to get substantial donation from real estate interests. They backed him heavily in 2009 and supported the citywide campaign of his committee predecessor Melinda Katz. So far, he hasn't -- although he did get $250 from Katz's old campaign committee. Of course, Comrie, who is term-limited in 2013, may not actually be running for anything.

Correction: This story originally said 19 council members have raised oney for a 2013 race. The correct number is 18.

Photo by William Alatriste

There's probably no way to stop the whispering, but new rules give the public increased access to the public comments of their state legislators and City Council members.

During the marriage equality debate on the floor of the New York State Senate in 2009, as many as 14,000 viewers watched the Senate live over the internet. This marked the most online viewers ever for the Senate. During the 2009-2010 session, a total of 280,000 unique viewers streamed live content of the State Senate in action.

For the state legislature, whose members meet in Albany but represent constituents from throughout the state, webcasting helps expand the public's ability to watch government at work (it's a pretty long drive from Niagara Falls to Albany, afterall, clocking in at just over five hours).

For the Buffalo resident who can't make the drive to Albany for an agency meeting or the Queens office worker unable to take time off from the job to get to a 10 a.m. City Council committee hearing, viewing government online may be a good option. But government bodies in New York vary widely over what is webcast and what's not, as well as what kind of information about meetings they make available online to interested citizens. In general, the state has more stringent requirements than New York City does. Even though state law provides some framework for how government must engage the public, however, it leaves much of the outreach practices to the agencies themselves.

The Open Meetings Law

Under state law, governments in New York state and city must conduct their business in public. According to the state's Committee on Open Government, a public meetings is "the official convening of a public body for the purpose of conducting public business." Public bodies are government entities that consist of two or more people who perform a governmental function. This includes public authorities as well as the state legislature and City Council.

Any time members of a New York public body officially gather to discuss public business, the meeting must be open to the public. The open government committee's "Your Right to Know" handbook describes meetings as public "whether or not there is an intent to take action and regardless of the manner in which the gathering may be characterized."

The law requires that notice be provided at least 72 hours prior of every meeting that is scheduled a week in advance. Notice must be posted for the public and media in "one or more designated locations" and on the agency’s website, if the agency is able to do so. Materials for meetings do not have to be issued in advance or posted online, though are often distributed at the meetings themselves. In general, agencies do not have to accept public comment, though some allow it.

Under a 2007 executive order signed by Gov. Eliot Spitzer and extended by Govs. David Paterson and Andrew Cuomo, state agencies must webcast their meetings. City government has no similar requirement, though it increasingly uses webcasting.

The lack of that city requirement may soon become almost irrelevant. Under a law in effect since April 1, members of the public are able to photograph, broadcast, webcast and record public meetings. This new law applies to both city and state agencies, meaning that the public may soon take it into their own hands to begin webcasting meetings.

Getting There

It used to be that one of the few ways to find out about public meetings other than phoning or visiting was to check the City Record or the State Register . Both are print publications that list public meetings, hearings, procurement and bidding opportunities, and other legal notices. The two publications are now available online. The state's version is fully searchable, while the city's is posted as a pdf, except for searchable procurement notices.

The state provides an online listing of webcast meetings, which links to every individual agency's website. State agencies vary, however, in how they format their postings and what additional information they provide, such as descriptions of the subjects of meetings.

Many city agencies also provide information about upcoming meetings on their websites, though they too vary widely in how the information is displayed. The Landmarks Preservation Commission lists its meetings on its homepage, along with the dates for when materials will be available. Similarly, the City Planning Commission features a link for meetings on its homepage and also posts meeting calendars that explain the process for providing public input along with disposition sheets that list the actions taken in previous meetings.

On its webpage, the Panel on Educational Policy lists meeting dates, agendas, directions, and minutes. Such information is required under the 2009 mayoral control reforms.

Other agencies provide less information. The Board of Elections for one posts notices on its homepage as well as minutes, but does not provide an agenda or other materials online. The Board of Health, the policymaking body of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which approved the ban on trans fats in New York, only lists its public meetings through its "Notices of Intent or Adoption." Members of the general public may have trouble finding this type of type of listing and may not be able to decode the legalese.

Some agencies have made recent strides. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, for example, has several committees and posts materials for its meetings at least a day in advance, Advocates say the MTA deserves a pat on the back.

"In the old days, you'd have to go to the meetings and hope that the copies didn’t run out," said Gene Russianoff, senior attorney for the New York Public Interest Research Group's Straphangers Campaign. The online postings, he said, are "the right way to do it. The meetings are hard to follow and understand if don't have the documents. You just can't visualize bus route changes without materials."

Attending or Watching Meetings

For most agencies in New York City, the public must attend in person to see meetings. While some content is available on NYC TV, which is available on cable or via antenna, it does not include all agencies' meetings. The City Council also recently began webcasting its stated meetings and lists meeting on a calendar on its website, though the public has to click through to determine which ones allow public comment.

The most recent City Charter Revision Commission also webcast its meetings, and provided transcripts and archived video. City Comptroller John Liu recently announced that the meetings of the city’s five pension boards would be webcast, though agendas and materials are not currently provided online.

Councilmember Gale Brewer, former chair of the City Council Technology Committee, believes that the council's webcasts help not only to lobbyists and the public, but also City Council employees.

"Staff who have to stay in the office, whether it's the district office or even at City Hall, are assisted by webcasting," said Brewer. "Not everyone has time to come down to City Hall, since government operates during the day."

Looking toward the future, Brewer believes that technology could allow for public comment via the internet for those who watch a webcast. She has used Twitter during hearings she conducted in the City Council to solicit questions from the public.

Commenting electronically, however, may not substitute for attending in person. Public comment sessions serve as an organizing tool for advocates and provide some guarantee that those attending will hear what is being said.

"My view is that there's nothing like being there if you want to have an impact," said Russianoff. "It's hard to ignore your issue if it is addressed by 10 speakers." In fact, Russianoff worked to change state law to require public comment at MTA meetings, and supports requiring other agencies to accept public comment as well.

Expanding Access

While state law sets some minimum standards for public meetings, it does not fully utilize technology in distributing information to the public. State legislation sponsored by Assemblymember Amy Paulin and passed in the Assembly earlier this year would require materials for meetings to be provided online prior to or at public meetings of state and city government. One goal of the legislation is to reduce costs, since Freedom of Information Lawrequests often occur for public documents that are discussed at meetings but not put online.

In the City Council, Brewer currently carries legislation modeled after the state rules that would require all city agencies to webcast their meetings. She hopes council will take it up this fall.

"Right now, there are some meetings on NYC-TV, but they are shown at their leisure, not yours," said Brewer. "The City Council is moving in the right direction by webcasting its meetings, and we're pushing the administration to do the same."

Rachael Fauss is research and policy manager for Citizens Union Foundation, which publishes Gotham Gazette. Ilana Novick provided research assistance for this article.

Photo by Azi Paybarah

Pedro Espada, facing a slew of ethics charges, was one of only two state senators from New York City who lost their re-election bids last year. Here, Espada campaigns with Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr., who did win re-election.

The New York state legislature has 48 new faces this session. This marks the largest turnover New York has seen in recent years -- possibly the most since the historic Watergate elections in the 1970s -- with 22 percent of all Asssembly and Senate seats changing hands between January 2009 and January 2010.

New York City, however, saw far fewer legislators leave their offices than the state as a whole, according to a study released by Citizens Union (the sister organization of Citizens Union Foundation, which publishes Gotham Gazette) last month, highlighting the many reasons legislators leave office.

Most legislators -- especially in New York City -- did not leave because of defeat at the polls. Some were forced to resign from office due to a felony conviction or ethics scandal, and others simply retired.

In New York City races are less competitive than in the rest of the state. Creating a climate of competitiveness, however, is not a simple fix in a City where Democratic enrollment dwarfs Republican enrollment.

Overall, 17 legislators left office under a cloud of ethical misconduct or criminal issues from 1999 to 2010 -- one out of every 11 legislators who left office. A shocking 12 of these legislators were from New York City.

In 2009 and 2010, 12 legislators retired in the state, and only 3 were from New York City -- Assemblymembers Michael Benjamin and Ann Margaret Carrozza (who may not have lived in her district as well as Sen. George Onorato.

Electoral Defeat

In the 2010 elections, 15 incumbent legislators out of 187 up for re-election statewide lost their seats, with only 3 of the losses occurring in New York City. The losses represent an incumbent re-election rate of 92 percent for the state. Over the last 10 years, the rate has averaged 96 percent.

New York City's incumbent re-election rate for its state legislators last fall was a staggering 96 percent in a year that was generally viewed as a tough one for incumbents. This is much higher than the rate of re-election for sitting City Council members, which was 88 percent in 2009.

Photo by Thomas Good / NLN

Janelle Hyer-Spencer holds the dubious distinction of being the only member of the State Assembly from New York City who sought another term and didn't get it.

Only one Assemblymember from the five boroughs lost a seat: Janele Hyer-Spencer, a Democrat from Staten Island and Bay Ridge, who was defeated by Republican challenger Nicole Malliotakis. In the Senate, just two losses occurred -- Pedro Espada falling to Gustavo Rivera in the Democratic primary for Senate District 33 in the Bronx, and Republican Frank Padavan to Democrat Tony Avella in Senate District 11 in Queens. Espada's loss was clearly related to the charges of ethical misconduct regarding his Soundview Health Clinic. Padavan had been in office since 1973, and anti-Albany sentiment may have played a role as well.

Leaving for Other Public Office

The most common reason state legislators leave is to seek other political office, elected or appointed. Seventeen legislators left to pursue other jobs in 2009 and 2010, eight of them from New York City. One sought federal office -- Adam Clayton Powell IV, who lost the 2010 primary election to long-time incumbent Democrat Charles Rangel.

Many legislators ran for higher state office last year, including former Sen. Eric Schneiderman who successfully ran for attorney general, and Assemblymembers Michael Gianaris, Jose Peralta and Adriano Espaillat who all won seats in the State Senate.

Some legislators -- perhaps having had enough of traveling to Albany and back -- instead ran for City office, including Mark Weprin who won a City Council seat in 2009 and then saw his brother, David Weprin, who once held the council seat, take his place in the Assembly. Ruben Diaz, Jr. left the Assembly after winning the Bronx borough president race, also in 2009. He subsequently appointed his Assembly colleague, Aurelia Greene deputy Bronx Borough president, making her the only state legislator appointed to office during 2009 or 2010.

Several of the races were interconnected, essentially creating a giant "domino effect" where one vacancy triggered another down the line and so on. With Andrew Cuomo, then former attorney general, running for governor, Schneiderman's bid for that office left his Senate seat open. Espaillat won that, leaving his Assembly seat open. , f Guillermo Linares captured that seat, ending the chain, as he was not then an elected official. (Linares, however, was a City Council member from 1992 to 2001.)

Legislators who leave for another office often do so mid-term, in some cases because local elections are on a different cycle. New York City's elections, for example, occur in odd-numbered years while state and federal elections take place in even years.

Other legislators leave for appointments mid-term. Vacancies for appointed offices tend to spike when a new administration takes office, as governors often tap legislators to serve as commissioners or political advisors. Perhaps the most politically expedient of these appointments occurred when former Gov. Eliot Spitzer appointed Republican Sen. Michael Balboni as his deputy secretary of public safety in 2007, which created a vacancy that resulted in a special election. Democrat Craig Johnson ultimately won the seat in that election, aiding the Democrats in eventually taking control of the Senate in the 2008 general election. (Johnson was one of the few incumbent senators who lost his re-election bid in 2010.)

Recently, Cuomo named Assemblymember Darryl Towns< of Brooklyn commissioner of the Department of Housing and Community Renewal, and Assemblymember RoAnn Destito of Rome commissioner of the Office of General Services. Other vacancies may occur for the seats of Assemblymembers Audrey Pheffer, who is in the running for appointment as Queens County Clerk, and Jane Corwin of Erie County, who is the endorsed Republican in the special election for the 26th Congressional District seat recently vacated by Chris Lee.

With vacancies in these four seats pending, the governor will likely call one or more special elections in the coming months. This means that the voters are likely to have little choice in who will fill these seats. In special elections, the major parties select their candidates in a closed process, not through a primary election. While a candidate may also petition to get on the ballot as an independent, this can be a difficult battle. In districts where party registration is very lopsided -- such as Towns' overwhelmingly Democratic district -- the candidate selected by the major party gets almost a free ride. Citizens Union Foundation in 2007 found that nearly a third of sitting legislators were first elected in a special election and went on to be re-elected after having the advantages of incumbency.

Encouraging Competitive Elections

No single silver bullet can create more competitive elections in New York City. Democratic enrollment outnumbers Republican enrollment in the five boroughs by a ratio of 6 to 1. Statewide, the numbers are closer, with Democrats having an enrollment advantage of 2 to 1. Even in the city, though, there are seats that have a more even split between the major parties, such as those recently won by Malliotakis and Avella. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver of Manhattan thinks that for his district, in contrast, Lassie could win on the Democratic line.

Advocates for more competitive elections point to the creation of a public financing system, such as the one in place for municipal elections in New York City, to more create opportunities for challengers who may not have the backing of the parties or moneyed interests. Under the city system, private contributions are matched with public dollars for candidates who agree to certain limits on how much money they can accept and who they can take it from.

Avella describes the state's campaign finance laws in contrast as the "wild wild west," noting that he was shocked by the lax rules at the state level, having run in the city for council and mayor. "You can raise money from anyone -- including those prohibited by the city system. Big money has a big influence in state races," he said.

Avella sees public financing as a means to level the playing field, and supports going beyond the city's matching system to a full or total public financing system. This, he said, will ultimately improve how government operates and will be worth the cost.

Getting on the ballot also poses a challenge for newcomers or those without backing from party organizations. The process is extraordinarily complicated with challenges so common that candidates generally believe they need to collect up to three times the number of signatures required.

Avella's proposal for full funding of elections would allow candidates to automatically qualify for placement on the ballot if they collect enough small donations. Other suggestions include decreasing the number of signatures to get on the ballot by half, similar to what the voters approved for New York City Election via a 2010 charter revision commission proposition.

The drawing of district lines also presents a way to encourage competition -- or more accurately not discourage it. Citizens Union supports legislation that would prohibit lines that favor or oppose any political party, incumbent or candidate.

"Making sure that lines can't be drawn with this type of political manipulation will inherently make elections more fair and competitive," said Alex Camarda, the group's director of public policy and advocacy.

The current system allows those creating the district boundaries -- the state legislators themselves -- to draw lines to suit their political interests. Cuomo recently introduced the Redistricting Reform Act of 2011, which would create an independent commission and provide guidelines for the drawing of lines that aim to take the politics out of the process.

Competitive Special Elections

To open up special elections, Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal, who first came to office in a special election, has proposed legislation that would create a primary election for the special election, allowing voters to pick the party nominee.

Alternatively, the city holds nonpartisan special elections to fill any mid-term vacancies on the City Council. This opens the race to all candidates who can collect enough signatures, and has the potential to increase turnout. Citizens Union released a report on turnout for non-partisan City Council special elections as opposed to the state legislature's partisan special elections, which found that council elections had an average turnout of 10.3 percent since 2000, as opposed to 6.6 percent for state elections. This indicates that, if the state had genuine competitive contests in its special elections, more voters might come to the polls.

Rachael Fauss is research and policy manager for Citizens Union Foundation, which publishes Gotham Gazette.

Photo (cc) A mailer from 32BJ in the 2009 election.

Campaign finance regulation is about to battle with the First Amendment.

The city Campaign Finance Board is gearing up to outline a proposal to regulate the disclosure of independent campaign spending. For the first time, spending by unions, corporations or individuals to advocate for or against a candidate will be regulated and overseen by the city Campaign Finance Board. The proposal, initially drafted by the City Charter Revision Commission last year, was approved by more than 80 percent of voters.

There will be no limit on how much an entity can spend, but every dollar -- from money spent on mailers to funding for volunteers to knock on your door -- will have to be accounted for.

As internal conversations at the Campaign Finance Board are put down on paper in preparation for a public hearing on March 10, many in the campaign business would like to keep the accounts under wraps.

The city's unions are already preparing to defend their member-to-member communication as protected under the First Amendment and therefore exempt from disclosure.

“Make no mistake: communication between a union and its members is not an independent expenditure. It is a constitutionally protected free speech issue,” said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, in a prepared statement.

The battle over what exactly is an independent expenditure will not stop there.

What to Consider

The U.S. Supreme Court, in its 2010 Citizens United decision, struck down a ban on independent corporate election spending, arguing a robocall or a mailer is protected under the First Amendment's right to free speech.

Before that, the city had seen an uptick in money spent on candidates without their approval. During the 2009 campaign, the Independence Party, financially backed by real estate interests, faced off in several districts with the Working Families Party, which had the support of many labor unions. Both spent their own money on their favorite candidates.

In the board's report on the 2009 election, it called this third party participation "unprecedented."

In New York City, the board argues, the disclosure of independent expenditures is particularly important because most candidates participate in the public campaign finance system. They receive public dollars and abide by spending limits -- from $161,000 for a primary City Council race to about $6.2 million for a primary mayor race. If third parties spend on behalf of candidates, it can tip the scale.

To limit that influence, the board is set to consider a menu of options. For instance, it will determine whether an independent expenditure has to expressly advocate for or against the candidate with certain phrases (such as "Vote for") or if merely mentioning the candidate is enough to trigger disclosure, according to a memo on the options.

The board will determine what a third party entity will have to disclose about itself, such as where it gets its funding. It is contemplating whether to force third parties to identify themselves on their literature or television ads and how often these parties will have to report to the board.

It is also considering whether to exempt certain support of candidates, such as newspaper editorials.

Keeping Labor Out

To labor leaders, these exemptions are key.

According to several city unions, the disclosure requirement should not cover communication meant only for their members. This could include a monthly newsletter announcing an endorsement or -- potentially -- a mailer urging its members to vote for a candidate.

“We would be happy to comply with disclosure requirements for independent expenditures on the city level," said Kevin Finnegan, the political director of 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, in a prepared statement. "We already report all political spending on communications to the general public on our NY state and federal filings. New York and federal reporting requirements do not require any reporting of communications with our own members. It is generally assumed that labor unions and other membership organizations have an absolute right to communicate with their own members regarding political or legislative issues and cannot be regulated or discouraged under the First Amendment. We have a continuing concern that staff at the NYC Campaign Finance Board believes that they are not subject to constitutional restrictions and may attempt to restrict or discourage the exercise of protected speech.”

In the opinion of some election attorneys, the union's First Amendment argument would hold up in court.

"Courts have ruled the unions have a First Amendment right to communicate with their members and such communications do not constitute regulative or political activity," said Henry Berger, an election lawyer. "I think that's totally protected and the CFB has absolutely no jurisdiction over that."

Others see arguments for including such communication. Some unions in the city have as many as 125,000 members. If a mailer goes out to them, said Gene Russianoff of the New York Public Interest Research Group, it could turn the tide for or against a candidate.

"We're talking about disclosure here. We're not talking about prohibition," said Russianoff. "On the one hand, there might be First Amendment concerns. On the other hand, contacting a union with hundreds of thousands of members is a potent independent expenditure."

How It's Done Elsewhere

The board is looking to other cities and states as an example.

In Los Angeles, third parties are required to disclose both independent expenditures and any communication with its membership. They are put in separate categories.

It is unclear what model the Campaign Finance Board will adopt in the five boroughs. Following its first public hearing on March 10, the board will draft rules and hold an additional public hearing for feedback. It would then put the rules before the full board for a vote.

It hopes to have rules set in place for a City Council special election this fall.

"Because this is an entirely new area for us we want to make it as public a process as possible," said Eric Friedman of the Campaign Finance Board. "There is ultimately this menu of options, from narrow to broad. There are good arguments to make it as broad as possible. There are good arguments to go the other way."

Photo Scott Beale

In March 2004, a Verizon employee working on a bank's phone lines inadvertently input some incorrect numbers. For two hours that followed residents of Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island calling 911 received a busy signal.

The incident provoked immediate concern. ''We don't have an adequate backup system for 911, which is more important than ever as we fight the war against terrorism," City Councilmember Peter Vallone said at the time.

That breakdown, combined with failures in the system during the previous summer's blackout, prompted Mayor Michael Bloomberg in April 2004 to embark on a major revamping, streamlining and modernization of the 911 emergency system, which began taking calls in 1968.

It was an ambitious goal. Jim Dwyer and Edward Wyatt of the Times called the effort "an undertaking of vast technical complexity and political delicacy that frustrated Mr. Bloomberg's immediate predecessor, Rudolph W. Giuliani." Giuliani tried to revamp the system several times during his eight years in office.

It has almost certainly frustrated Bloomberg as well. While the city points to some successes and progress, the program has fallen behind schedule while going over budget. Whatever the reasons, the new system "hasn't performed well at all," said Jerome Hauer, a former director of the city Office of Emergency Management, who has been a frequent critic of the Bloomberg administration. "It's been a colossal disaster. It has not met the timetable, and it is not doing what it intended to do."

The many problems with the 911 system during last month's blizzard, when the backlog of calls exceeded 1,000 and at least some people did not get desperately needed help, has focused attention on the city's emergency communications systems and the problems the city has encountered in bringing it into the 21st century.

Snowed Under

Along with the Sanitation Department, the city's emergency response system has borne the brunt of criticism over the city's handling of the Dec. 26 blizzard.

[The City Council will begin hearings today on the overall response to the blizzard. For our story on the council's plans, go here.]

On the day after the storm, 49,478 calls came into the system -- the sixth highest number on record. The next day, the system took about 38,000 calls. At one point, there was a three-hour backlog for priority calls, including medical emergencies, and a 12-hour backlog overall.

A number, the mayor later said, did not concern genuine emergencies. Some New Yorkers called 911 for rather trivial matters because 311 also experienced difficulties as Verizon truck lines reached capacity.

Whatever the reasons, the 911 calls poured in, and as they did, not enough people were on hand to take them. When operators dispatched ambulances, some of them could not get through the city's snow clogged streets. In the days following the blizzard, relatives and friends blamed the slow emergency response for the death of a 73-year-old man in Kensington, Brooklyn, and a newborn baby in Crown Heights.

Responding to widespread reports of backlogged calls and marooned ambulances, Bloomberg told reporters he was "extremely dissatisfied with the way our emergency systems responded" and said the recently appointed director of emergency communications, Skip Funk, would review what went wrong.

Last week, Bloomberg replaced the head of the 911 system -- Joseph Peruggia -- with another career Fire Department person, Abdo Nahmod. Bloomberg said he did not hold Peruggia responsible for the shortcomings in the 911 response, but added it was time for a "new guy."

Peruggia's reassignment -- he will stay with the department in some capacity -- was met with some skepticism. Whatever his performance, Peruggia was not the person who made the early -- and apparently pivotal decision -- to not declare a snow emergency as the storm moved in.

Patrick Bahnken, president of the union that represents city paramedics, called Peruggia's removal "an outrage," and blamed "overwhelming logistical failures" for problems in the 911 system during and immediately following the storm, according to the Times.

"Making examples of people who don't have the authority to call snow emergencies, coordinate agencies, plow streets or do more than work with the resources given to them is not the answer to the problem," City Councilmember Jumaane Williams said in a statement. "The responsibility lies with those who are in charge. "

(Perrugia reportedly could face unrelated charges from the city Conflicts of Interest Board.)

In condemning the 911 response, Bloomberg said whatever problems the system might have had on Dec. 26 and the days immediately after could not be blamed on technology. "The technology was not the culprit," the mayor said.

The new system will be able to handle the volume of calls, according to Funk. "What we have seen in every crisis over the last number of years is that the spike in the number of calls can be easily handled when we get these new systems in place," he said.

Streamlining 911

The technology, though, has had its difficulties. The plan originally announced by the city in 2004 -- known as the Emergency Communication Transformation Project -- called for unifying the emergency system. Under the old system, people would call a 911 operator who would in turn connect them to either a police, fire or emergency medical dispatcher who would take information again and then some.

When the new system is completely in place, all dispatchers would work either from a location in downtown's Brooklyn's Metrotech Center or from a back-up center -- still to be built in the Bronx. The 911 operator would take the call and then -- via computer message -- dispatch the appropriate emergency service.

The city has already moved all Emergency Medical Service dispatchers and the Brooklyn, Staten Island and Manhattan fire command centers into the new facility in Brooklyn.

There are other features as well. Dispatchers would automatically be alerted of the name and location of the caller as the request for help came in. In 2008, the system became able to receive photos from callers.

In May 2009 -- more than a year behind schedule -- parts of the unified system went into effect. Initially, reports surfaced of dispatchers relaying the incorrect addresses to the fire dispatch system. The administration concluded this was not the fault of the unified calling system and now uses it for all structural fires.

In the following fiscal year -- from July 2009 to June 2010 -- fire emergency response time fell by six seconds, according to administration figures. Response to medical emergencies increased by one second, but in the Mayor's Management report, the city blamed some of that on the closings of two hospital emergency rooms in Queens and St. Vincent's Medical Center in Manhattan.

Unions have opposed the unified calling approach. While much of that undoubtedly springs from a desire to protect their members' jobs, some outsiders say fire department dispatchers have specific expertise -- on types of fires for example -- that improves the response to certain emergencies.

"The notion of bringing police and fire into the same location sounded like a good concept, but it has done nothing to enhance communication between the two," said Hauer.

Time and Money

Over the years, the cost of the program has risen from $1.3 billion to more than $2 million. Meanwhile parts of it also fell two years or more behind schedule.

Early in 2010, the city removed Hewlett-Packard, the contractor charged with integrating the call system, because of poor performance and cost overruns. In one case, according to Juan Gonzalez of the Daily News, Hewlett-Packard had to submit 15 floor plans to the police department before getting one accepted.

Key software from Verizon -- Vesta, which is supposed to automatically give a 911 operator the name and location of the caller -- failed preliminary tests. Concerned about delay and overruns, the city will try to get Verizon to reimburse the money it received for Vesta.

Earlier this month, City Comptroller John Liu rejected a $286 million contract for the 911 project. The contract with Northrop Grumman was for the Bronx back-up call center. In a letter to Bloomberg, Liu said the deal raised issues similar to problems with the wildly over-budget CityTime computerized payroll project, including "significant cost overruns."

Noting that Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith is reviewing city technology projects in the wake of the disclosures about CityTime, Liu said Goldsmith should also look at the emergency communication contracts "to head off even more significant problems."

The city also encountered longstanding animosity between the police and fire departments, with some critics charging the administration sided with the police department in disputes over jurisdiction. And, some critics say, the project called for a level of technological sophistication well beyond that of many of the fire department veterans entrusted with it. This complicated the job for at least some of the vendors, some experts say.

Underlying all this are charges the administration -- to some extent -- has mismanaged the project. In 2009, Paul Cosgrove, the commissioner of the city's Department of Information, Technology and Telecommunications resigned amid increased concern about backlog and snafus at the project. Recently, the mayor appointed Funk, who had worked on Chicago's system, as the city's new director of emergency communications.

"This is supposed to be the mayor's forte," said Hauer, "and he certainly has not shown his management capabilities."

Preparing for the Next Storm

While the 911 upgrade hardly looks like one of Bloomberg's shining successes -- at least so far -- any links between the problems in improving the call system and the delays and backlogs in last month's storm appear tenuous at best.

"The dispatchers can only do so much," said Glenn Corbett, a fire safety professor at John Jay College. Ambulances must be available to respond to the calls and able to navigate the streets.

One dispatcher, speaking with the Times, put it more bluntly. "It was hell," the dispatcher said. "It was call after call after call. Nobody plowed the streets. How can we protect the city like this?"

Corbett, Hauer and other experts see a number of ways to get those ambulances out there. Corbett suggests the ambulance team with snowplows that could clear the way for them.

To some extent, this did happen, according to a spokesman for the Office of Emergency Management, although it was a little too late. During the snow the city appointed a task force to deal with stuck ambulances. It included representatives from the various agencies involved. Eventually the group decided to send convoys to unearth stuck ambulances, which included a salt spreader and a police department tow truck.

Corbett said the city could also look at how the system prioritized calls among the huge number that poured in. Following the storm, one unnamed paramedic cited this as a key problem, telling the Times the emergency medical system "even responded to a call of hiccups."

Hauer thinks the city might want to invest in better equipment. The city's ambulance fleet is not able to handle tire chains.

"You don’t need to have every ambulance in New York a big Hummer type ambulance, but you do need to have a certain percentage of your ambulances and police cars able to work and function in severe weather," Hauer said.

The city directs its ambulance drivers to get as close as they can to a patient. In the storm, the mayor said, that could have resulted in more ambulances getting stuck on streets, something that would not have happened had the streets been plowed, salted or sanded in the first place. "Perhaps they could have stayed further away and walked in to the places rather than try to get down the secondary roads," Bloomberg said.

In that event, the city might also need to have larger crews to respond to some calls during a storm. "They can't carry a person out of a building in a snowstorm with just two people," Corbett said.

Now that the snow is largely gone -- for the time at least -- Corbett would like to see the city take a close look at where the problem calls were, how agencies cooperated -- or didn't cooperate -- and how to get people out of buildings during a blizzard. "It's important," he said, "to have a full, independent inquiry into not only the dispatchers but the entire emergency response system."

The administration, along with City Council, has promised to conduct a study. Whether the various investigations will be independent, substantive or, most importantly, really able to make a difference before the next emergency, should become apparent in the days and weeks to come.

Photo by Jeremy Zilar

Winners appear in bold. An asterisk indicates an incumbent. Results are rounded, so may not always equal 100 percent.

These results are based on the unofficial vote tally as reported by the wire services .The official count from the Board of Elections can take weeks to complete and will be posted as soon as they are available. The results below are subject to change as the official count is made public.

For more on the elections go to Gotham Gazette's Who's Running for What.

Statewide

Junior Senator Bruce Blakeman (Tax Revolt) 0%
John Clifton (Lib) 0%
Joseph DioGuardi (R, C) 36%
Kirsten Gillibrand* (D, WF) 61%
Joseph Huff (Rent) 1%
Cecile Lawrence (G) 1%
Vivia Morgan (Anti-Prohib) 0%

U.S Representative

State Representative

City Council

Judges

Photo by Board of Elections

The Board of Elections launched a public education campaign on the new voting system. Critics say New Yorkers got the message, but the board didn't.

Little doubt exists that George Gonzalez was the wrong man in the wrong job at the wrong time. Somewhat unpolished, Gonzalez, who had worked at the Board of Elections for 22 years before the board named him executive director this summer, often appeared awkward and even combative as the board sought to explain a series of mishaps with its new voting system on primary day.

And then just one week ago, Gonzalez lost his job.

Since the Sept. 14 primary -- which was mired by delayed poll openings and equipment malfunctions -- good government groups and the Bloomberg administration have called for increased transparency and accountability at the board. Some advocates have urged the City Council to exert more oversight. State Assemblymember Michael Benjaminof the Bronx has gone further, preparing legislation that would place the administrative functions of the now independent board under mayoral control.

Before his ouster on Oct. 26, Gonzalez repeatedly pledged that New Yorkers would have a good experience when they went to the polls on Nov. 2. Even if events prove him right, it will be too late to save Gonzalez.

What happens to voters today, though, could play a key role in determining whether major changes will finally come to an agency politicians have delighted in pummeling for years, but have never really worked to change.

Post-Primary Depression

Contrary to many predictions, most New Yorkers were not fazed when they confronted paper ballots and optical scanners on primary day. Some credit this to the board's outreach efforts, which included ads, a video and training sessions throughout the city.

The board, though, had problems. Polls opened late, poll workers could not get access to equipment, and scanners jammed. As they sought to help voters, many poll workers seemed to forget the principal of the secret ballot, carrying the marked papers in plain view around the poll site and feeding ballots into scanners face up.

"It wasn't the public that turned out to be confused. ... It was some of the poll workers," City Councilmember Peter Vallonesaid at a council hearing last month.

A report by state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli found some poll sites opened up to two and a half hours after the scheduled time. The report also cited privacy problems, equipment malfunctions at some 700 sites and improper training of 43 percent of poll workers.

"The city's transition into the 21st century was fraught with serious mistakes," Council Speaker Christine Quinn said at the hearing. "Many things went seriously wrong."

Gonzalez and others board officials repeatedly said the problems were relatively minor given the enormity of the changes. Some 90 percent of election rules and procedures had to be rewritten, one board official said, adding: "Because of the short time between the purchase of the machines and the primary, we were scheduling classes when we didn’t even know what we were going to be teaching."

To Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the problems seemed to reinforce his low opinion of an agency he has clashed with repeatedly. On primary day, he blasted the board for its performance, calling the late openings and other woes "a complete screw up " and "totally unacceptable."

Meanwhile the board, under increased scrutiny from public officials and the media, began to seem increasingly like a gang that couldn’t shoot straight. The city -- along with four other counties in the state -- missed the Oct. 1 deadline for mailing ballots to military personnel and others Americans overseas, prompting a federal Justice Department suit. Now those people will have until Nov. 24 -- three weeks after the election -- to return their ballots.

Earlier this month, the Brennan Center obtained a sample ballot -- the board does not routinely post or otherwise provide samples – and noticed the instructions tell voters to fill in the bubble above or next to the name of their preferred candidates. What they should do -- and what the lines on the ballot appear to indicate -- is fill in the bubble below the chosen candidate's name.

In an emergency meeting, Gonzalez and the board lawyer, Steven Richman, explained the wording had been approved by the state legislature this summer. That wording accurately reflects the design of the ballot in many counties, but the board in New York City put the bubbles below the candidate's name. Until the Brennan Center took a look, no one noticed the discrepancy between New York State's instructions and New York City's ballot.

The controversy that may have had –- and continue to have -– the greatest impact on the board would have affected only a small percentage of the city’s voters: those in City Council District 28 in Queens. There the board, reportedly under Gonzalez's direction, arrangedthe names of the seven candidates so that one, Ruben Wills, appeared to be running as a Republican -- something that would hardly boost his changes in the overwhelmingly Democratic and largely black and Asian area. The ballot has been reprinted, and the city Department of Investigation has launched a probe, possibly into whether Gonzalez arranged the ballot to benefit one of Wills' rivals.

Checkered Past

The city Board of Elections has long been the target of criticism from good government groups and some politicians. In 2004, problems with voters registration and high turnout forced many voters to have to cast paper ballots -- instead of pulling the lever. At the same time, people trying to call the board with questions or complaints could not get through. Its web site went down too. In the 2008 presidential primary, the board reported -- mistakenly -- that Barack Obama got zero votes in some election districts.

And then there was the selection of the new voting machines. New York, the last state in the country to comply with federal regulations requiring new machines with a paper trail, punted the decision to its counties. Earlier this year the city finally selected its machines, choosing equipment made by Elections Systems & Software. A day after that decision, federal prosecutors indicted company lobbyist Anthony Mangone for allegedly bribing a Yonkers City Council member. This apparently helped prompt a federal investigation into the contract -- a probe that as of earlier this fall was still ongoing, according to the Washington Post.

The city's last minute choice of the machines gave it little time to prepare for this election and no opportunity to test the new technology before converting to it completely, which other counties in the state had done. Further complicating the transition, the board's previous executive director left abruptly in February, and the board did not appoint Gonzalez to replace him until August.

Price of Independence

The Board of Elections is a creature of the state, a relic of efforts in the late 19th century to hem in the influence of the Democratic Tammany machine. Independent of mayoral control, it is intended to be rigidly bipartisan with an equal number of commissioners from both major parties (minor party members need not apply).

Whatever its original intent, many critics say the structure, particularly at a time when voting administration has become increasingly technical -- hobbles the board's effectiveness.

Likening the board to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Neal Rosenstein of New York Public Interest Research Group, said: "The board is set up in a way to shield accountability from the people who have power" -- in this case, he said, the party leaders, who appoint the commissions.

The power of the party leaders extends deeply into the board -- with jobs down to, say, truck drivers and file clerks evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, resulting in two people for a single job in some cases.

While conceding "every structure has its flaws," Lawrence Norden, senior counsel for the Brennan Center's Democracy Program, said, "There are clearly problems with a system where there are members that are appointed by the major political parties to look out for their interests."

Beyond Gonzalez

Whatever they might have thought of Gonzalez -- and some confessed to feeling some sympathy for him, seeing him as a "fall guy" for more deeply entrenched problems -- few observers think his firing will end what many see as the dysfunction at the city Board of Elections.

The situation, said Rosenstein, "reflects on the sorry state of the parties and the party leaders who appoint the board."

While still retaining that board, Assemblymember Benjamin would limit their authority. Under his proposal -- which is not yet in the form of a complete bill -- the mayor would assume control of board operations, such as hiring poll workers, fixing voting machines and the like. The mayor also would appoint the executive director and the board's administrative staff.

The board would see its responsibilities sharply reduced to ruling on maters involving election law, such as reviewing challenges to signatures on nominating petitions.

This, Benjamin said, "would take the politics out of the Board of Elections. ... There would be professional personnel, not owing allegiance to either party.

Benjamin, who once served as a deputy chief clerk at the board, said he had reviewed the State Constitution and believes his proposal falls within the boundaries of what it allows. Even more sweeping changes -- eliminating the board entirely, say -- would require a change in the constitution.

Benjamin, who is leaving office at the end of the year, acknowledged his idea would probably not pass in this session. But he hopes someone will pick up on it when he goes. He also plans to discuss his proposal with the mayor's office.

Purse Strings

Other advocates say the mayor and the City Council could do more with the power they already have -- like in the budget.

While simply cutting funding would hurt voters, the council and mayor could keep a tight leash on the board's discretionary spending -- the money it used to buy new chairs for its employees, for example -- to compel the board to shape up.

The board and some other observers counter, though, that the board needs more money, not less.

Testifying before a State Senate hearing, Commissioner Juan Carlos Polanco said the board got almost $10 million less from the city than it had requested. "There is no cheap way to run an election," he said. Board counsel Richman said the board needs 102 more employees to do its job.

Some elected officials agreed. State Sen. Bill Perkins (whose wife works at the board) called the funding for the board "shameful," while State Sen. Daniel Squadron said, "There's no question we don’t sufficiently fund our election operations."

But Quinn dismissed such complaints. "I do not accept underfunding as an answer to what went wrong" on primary day, she said at the council hearing. "It's simply a way to skirt responsibility."

Quinn said -- and Gonzalez did not dispute -- that the Office of Management and Budget has always given the board money to meets its needs throughout the year, even if it did ot approve the entire allocation at the beginning of the fiscal year.

Transparency

If there's any doubt the board remains independent of the mayor one only has to look at its web site. In an administration that loves data, the board offers little of it. Despite requests, the board still has not prepared an accounting of its performance on primary day -- a listing of how many poll sites opened late and by how much, of the number of poll workers who did not show up at their appointed site, or any documentation of equipment woes.

It also does not supply information for inclusion in the annual Mayor's Management Report, which examines performance of city agencies and whether they met various benchmarks.

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio believes providing that kind of information would constitute a vital first step on the road to change. "Any reforms we undertake have to start with greater transparency at the Board of Elections itself," he said in a written statement. Including board information in the report, he continued, "will help set benchmarks and measure progress -- it's amazing the BOE has managed to evade this simple oversight for so long." De Blasio added, "There is clearly a case to be made for more drastic reform in the years ahead, but transparency is where we need to start right now."

The Bloomberg administration has been trying to persuade the board to do this. Officials say it has not had much -- if any -- success. Gonzalez told council it would "not be appropriate" for an indpendent agency to give information to the mayor.

The mayor's bashing of the board has done nothing to make the board likely to cooperate. "The problem in that relationship comes from both sides," Rosenstein said. While the board has an "insular culture," he said, "frequently it seems the mayor is more interested in criticizing the board and having a foil than working with it."

Rosenstein said, the council could use its power over appointments to exact this kind of change. The council has to approve nominees for the board, although no one can recall a case of one being rejected.

This should not surprise anyone. "The council members are all part of the same party structure as the party chair who appoint the commissioners, "Rosenstein said.

The opacity of the board is not limited to the management report.

The board holds its regular meetings in a room at 42 Broadway. A lectern blocks the view of the board. "It's difficult to hear," said Marjorie Shea of the Womens' City Club, and there's no stenographic record.

In addition, the board does not videotape its meetings. "Too much goes on behind closed doors, said Norden.

And much of its basic information is not available -- such as the sample ballots. A simple change, such as posting PDFs of sample ballots, said Alex Camarda, advocacy director for Citizens Union (whose sister organization publishes Gotham Gazette), would have addressed some of the problems in voting this year. If citizens had a chance to review the ballot before stepping into the privacy booth, they might not be so confused by the instructions or hampered by the small type on the ballot.

The board, according to Shea, has said a sample ballot could lead to voter fraud.

At the council hearing, Councilmember Gale Brewer repeatedly pressed the board on whether it would post various information -- data on its own performance, for example -- on the web. The board was, at best, noncommittal.

But Shea said, "It’s half empty and half full with this board." Things, she said, have improved: Some information is on the internet and "they recognize members of the public and let us have a say."

The Person at the Top

The hiring of the executive director highlighted the secretive nature of the board. After executive director Marcus Cedarqvist resigned, the board never posted the job or held any kind of public search. It largely refused comment on the process of selecting a new chief. Reports of possible deals leaked out as Gonzalez plugged away in his efforts to get the post.

The search was "not transparent, not broad," said Norden. "It gave the appearance of being more about backroom dealing and horse-trading among political parties."

If the board opens up the search this time around, Norden continued, it would provide "an opportunity for the board to prove people wrong." If it doesn't, he said, "the calls for revamping the city board will only grow stronger."

Quinn and Brewerm who chairs the council's Government Operations Committee, have called for a national search to replace Gonzalez. The board, however, has not responded.

Once a new executive director is hired, Rosenstein said, he or she should undergo an annual performance review .

In the Trenches

Most voters never meet a member of the Board of Elections. They do though have frequent content with poll workers on the front line of the election process. Many poll workers did not show up on primary day, although no exact count of that exists. Some of those that did appear had been poorly trained, and some had flunked the test at the end of training -- but were on site anyway.

According to Gonzalez's testimony, the board hired about 32,000 poll workers. Of those, more than 3,000 appointed by political parties, Richman testified, did not take the normally required training. Another 700 or 800, he said, took the training, failed it -- but worked anyway.

"We had election workers who were not trained properly, who did not know what they were doing," Vallone said at the hearing.

Camarda said the board must make greater efforts to broaden and expand its recruitment, reaching out to students for example. Citizens Union, Camarda said, would like to see legislation mandating a wider search or at least requiring the board to report on its efforts to recruit polls workers. "We think that would spur them to go beyond using patronage to fill the jobs," he said.

In addition, he said, poll workers should have to pass a test and, to make poll operations go more smoothly, the poll site coordinator could be required to contact poll site workers before Election Day.

"Such, things, Camarda said "seem almost too small to write into legislation," but if the agency resists such reform, "you write it into law."

To boost the numbers of competently trained people at the polls, Rosenstein would like to see the city give another day off to any civil servant who agrees to work at a polling place.

Now, with the problem of the last six weeks or so fresh in the minds of officials and the voters who election them, change -- at least of the "small bore" variety -- might appear inevitable. But then again, it might not be.

"For the most part elections go off relatively smoothly," Camarda said, "And there is also a sense that, these problems, if they do surface ... fade away."

Whatever else one thinks of the 2010 election season, it has not been pretty.

New York is no exception.

Scandal has tarnished candidates -- from a powerhouse like Rep. Charles Rangel to an aspiring state senator on Long Island. The gubernatorial campaign has featured anti-gay diatribes, a near brawl between a contender and a reporter, and single debate -- one branded as a farce or worse. Meanwhile, the comptroller candidatesspar over whether it is worse to spend a career on Wall Street or on Albany.

BROOKLYN

State Senate

17th District (Martin Malave Dilan 18th District (Velmanette Montgomery)
19thDistrict (John Sampson)
20th District: Eric Adams)
21st District (Kevin Parker)
22nd District (Martin Golden)
25th District (Daniel Squadron)

Assembly

27th District (Carl Kruger)
40th District (Inez Barron)
41st District (Helene Weinstein)
42nd District (Rhoda Jacobs)
44th District (James Brennan)
46th District (Alec Brook-Krasny)
47th District (WilliamColton)
48th District (Dov Hikind)
49th District (Peter Abbate): Republican only
50th District (Joseph Lentol)
51st District (Felix Oritz)
52nd District (Joan Millman)
53rd District (Vito Lopez)
54th District (Darryl Towns)
55th District (William Boyland)
56th District (Annette Robinson)
57th District (Hakeem Jeffries)
59th District (Alan Maisel)
60th District(Janele Hyer-Spencer)

MANHATTAN

State Senate

25th District (Daniel Squadron)
26th District (Liz Krueger)
28th District (Jose Serrano
29th District (Thomas Duane)
30th District (Bill Perkins)
31st District (Eric Schneiderman)

Assembly

65th District (Micah Kellner)
66th District (Deborah Glick)
68th District (Adam Clayton Powell IV)
69th District (Daniel O'Donnell)
70th District (Keith Wright)
71st District (Herman Farrell)
72nd District (Adriano Espaillat)
73rd District (Jonathan Bing)
74th District (Brian Kavanaugh)
75th District (Richard Gottfried)

QUEENS

State Senate
11th District (Frank Padavan)
12th District (George Onorato)
13th District (Jose Peralta)
14th District (Malcolm Smith
15th District. (Joseph Addabbo)
) 16th District (Toby Stavisky)

Assembly

23rd District (Audrey Pheffer)
24th District (David Weprin)
26th District (Ann-Margaret Carrozza)
28th District (Andrew Hevesi)
30th District (Margaret Markey)
37th District (Catherine Nolan)
38th District (Michael Miller)
38th District (Michael Miller)
39th District (Open)

STATEN ISLAND

Assembly

60th District (Janele Hyer-Spencer) 61st District (Matthew Titone)
62nd District (Lou Tobacco)
63rd District(Matthew Cusick)

On Tuesday, for better or worse, the campaigning will end and you -- the voter -- will have the chance to go to the polls and weigh in. Judging from the events on primary day and subsequent drama at the Board of Elections,voting may not be easy or private. But there are a number of contests, including statewide offices, both U.S. Senate seats, members of Congress and the state legislature.

As we do for every primary and general election, Gotham Gazette presents its Guide for the Last Minute Voter. This year, we have coverage of key races, lists and compilations of coverage elsewhere on all the competitive contests for state legislature in the city, a rundown of what else you might see on your ballot (don't forget the ballot questions and judicial contests), and information on where and how to vote. For more on all the congressional and legislative seats in the five boroughs, go to Who's Running for What and stay tuned to our site on election night and the day after for coverage of the results.

Statewide Offices
The Legislature
Congress
City Council
Ballot Questions
Judges
How to Vote
When and Where to Vote

Statewide Contests

New Yorkers will choose who will occupy all four (including lieutenant governor) statewide offices on Tuesday. Unusually, none of the races include an elected incumbent for re-election -- a fact that highlights just how turbulent the last four years have been in Albany.

In 2006, New Yorkers elected Eliot Spitzer as their governor with David Paterson as his running mate, Alan Hevesi as comptroller and Andrew Cuomo as attorney general. Before he could even take office, Hevesi had to step aside over charges he let a state employee chauffeur his ailing wife. Earlier this month, the former comptroller was implicated in a multimillion dollar corruption scandal.

After a bitter confrontation between Spitzer and the Assembly -- a sign of things to come -- the legislature appointed Long Island Assemblymember Thomas DiNapoli to replace Hevesi. DiNapoli is now trying to win election to the post, but faces a spirited challenge from businessman Harry Wilson, who has money to spend and the backing of most of the state's newspapers and the business community.

On the gubernatorial front, Paterson's plans to seek election were derailed by reports of scandal, which easily handed the Democratic nomination for governor to Cuomo.

The Republicans had an even more complicated path to finding a nominee. For months, former U.S. Rep. Rick Lazio seemed to have the nomination locked up. But with the GOP increasingly fractious -- and amid growing doubts about whether Lazio could beat Cuomo -- some in the party searched for an alternative. Party chair Ed Cox drew upon Suffolk County executive Steve Levy, who decided to take the plunge -- despite being a registered Democrat. The party convention then blocked his bid.

That left Buffalo businessman Carl Paladino to challenge Lazio. In a year of Tea Party takeover and with turnout in western New York high, Paladino trounced Lazio in the primary.

Since then things have gone mostly downhill for rock 'em, sock 'em candidate. Media commentators, Democrats and even some in his own party roundly criticized his pornographic emails, threats to take a baseball bat to Albany, so-called obsession with Cuomo's sex life and anti-gay rants. Wildly outspent, Paladino and his running mate Greg Edwards lag sharply in the polls.

For attorney general, Manhattan State Sen. Eric Schneiderman prevailed over four opponents to win the Democratic nomination. He faces Staten Island District Attorney Dan Donovan. Schneiderman has stressed his progressive politics and has support from many unions, most Democrats and many in the black and Latino communities. Donovan has styled himself as a moderate, picking up support from Mayor Michael Bloomberg and from many in finance who clearly appreciate his vow not to be a sheriff of Wall Street.

For his part Donovan has sought to tie Schneiderman to the dysfunction of Albany and, most recently, to allegations that senators, notably those in the leadership, participated in a deeply flawed and possibly rigged bidding process for a casino at the Aqueduct racetrack.

Wall Street and Albany have emerged as key issues in the comptroller's race as well. Wilson has contrasted his experience on Wall Street to DiNapoli's decades in state government. He alleges DiNapoli is too tied to the establishment to go after wasteful state spending. DiNapoli counters that Wilson is too tied to Wall Street.

Gotham Gazette's coverage:

Cuomo vs. the Unions: The Democratic candidate has vowed to go head-to-head with public employees to cut the budget, but labor leaders say he must treat them as partners, not enemies.

Donovan's Uphill Battle : Dan Donovan has Mayor Bloomberg's support, a strong resume and a vulnerable opponent. Despite that, his campaign for attorney general seems haphazard, underfunded and even wounded.

Beyond Hevesi's Shadow : Now that the former comptroller has pleaded guilty, the race for the post can center on the differences between the incumbent, Thomas DiNapoli, and his GOP challenger, Harry Wilson.

The State Legislature

It has long been a truism of New York politics that the Democrats control the Assembly, the Republicans control the Senate, and the governorship goes back and forth. But that changed in the overwhelmingly Democratic year of 2008 as Democrats, capitalizing on years of eroding support for the GOP in New York, captured the Senate -- by the slimmest of margins.

Their control has been tenuous at best. The upper chamber was deadlocked for weeks in 2009 when two Democrats bolted from their party.

Now, Election Day might bring the Republicans back to a majority -- odds are that their lead too would be narrow.

Most of the swing districts are outside of the city. Most of the races in the overwhelmingly Democratic five boroughs feature entrenched Democratic incumbents and little known, poorly funded GOP challengers. The much-touted push to "throw the rascals out" has gained little traction in New York City. Even three senators cited in the recent report on the Aqueduct casino -- Malcolm Smith, John Sampson and Eric Adams -- face no serious opposition.

There are a few hard fought contests though. For example, in the 15th district in Queens, the Republicans hope to oust a Democrat, and in the 11th district, also in Queens, Democrats see a chance to pick up a Republican seat.

The Democrats hold a massive majority -- 105 seats to 42 -- in the Assembly and are in no danger of losing it. Republicans, though, think they can chip away at it and make it less formidable. As with the Senate, most of the action in the Assembly is north of the Bronx and west of the Hudson. Republicans think they have a shot at an open Assembly seat in eastern Queens and may have one or two other opportunities as well.

Gotham Gazette's coverage:

Matchup in Maspeth: Two years after moving the South Queens state senate district to the Democratic column, Joseph Addabbo campaigns to keep it there.

Silver's Shadow: The Assembly speaker's influence looms large in a contest for an open Assembly seat in northeast Queens.

A Student's Long Shot: A 20-year-old hopes to oust a long-term Assembly member and Albany insider in Bensonhurst.

Back in Charge? New York Republicans hope to retake the State Senate in November.

Congress

While the big story this year is whether Republicans will retake the House and Senate, much of New York remains solidly blue. Several House contests in New York State could tip from Democrat to Republican, bolstering GOP chances for winning a House majority.

Only one seat in New York City is in play.

New Yorkers face an unusual situation this year in that both of their U.S. senators are up for election. Sen. Charles Schumer, whose second six-year term is drawing to a close, faces a challenge from media consultant Jay Townsend. Schumer has built up a daunting war chest and, if polls are to be believed, an even more daunting edge among the voters.

The state's junior senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, also appears on the ballot. Named in 2009 to fill now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's unexpired term, Gillibrand must get the voters' OK to stay in the seat for the next two years. Although practically every politician in New York seemed to be weighing a run against Gillibrand at one point, they all bailed out. Now Gillibrand faces Republican former U.S. Representative Joseph DioGuardi, who says his experience as an accountant makes him qualified to take on excessive spending in Washington. Faring better than Townsend, he too trails in fundraising and in the polls.

As always in even-numbered years, all the members of Congress, including the 13 from New York City, must face the voters this year. Two incumbents -- Charles Rangel and Carolyn Maloney face faced serious challenges in the primaries. But both repelled them handily. For the general, all the incumbents have opponents, but only one race is widely viewed as even remotely competitive.

That's in district 13 -- on Staten Island and a small piece of Brooklyn -- where first term incumbent Michael McMahon faces a challenge from Michael Grimm, a former Marine who later worked for the FBI financial fraud division. As a Democrat in a Republican-leaning district in what many anticipate will be a GOP year, McMahon has been campaigning aggressively. Grimm, who is seen as a Tea Party candidate, has not received backing from some in the GOP establishment, who preferred his primary opponent Michael Allegretti.

McMahon has also been at odds with his party -- largely over his vote against the health care bill.

City Council

New York's municipal elections take place every four years, so most City Council members can take a break from campaigning this year. There are, however, two districts where voters will see a council race on their ballots.

The contested one is in district 28 in southeast Queens where seven candidates are vying to fill the seat left vacant by the death of City Councilmember Thomas White.

Officially, the seat in district 44 in Borough Park, Brooklyn, is up for grabs as well. That seat became open last winter when Simcha Felder resigned to go work for the city comptroller. David Greenfieldwon the subsequent special election. Law requires that the winner of a special election face the voters again on the next general election day. So Greenfield will do that -- but he will be unopposed.

Gotham Gazette's coverage:

The Race to Replace White: Seven candidates, including Sean Bell's widow, a censured former council member and a Rikers Island imam, vie for a Queens City Council seat.

Ballot Questions

Voters who flip over their paper ballot will find two ballot questions, generated from proposals at the Charter Revision Commission.

The first -- question 1 -- would restore term limits for city elected officials to two, four-year stints. That was what voters had enacted twice in the 1990s. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn extended it to three in 2008 so they could remain in office. If voters say yes, this proposal would prevent the City Council from extending their terms in the future.

The measure, though, does not apply to council members, borough presidents and citywide officials currently in office, allowing them to serve three full terms. As a result, for all intents and purposes, the new law would not go take effect until 2021.

Ballot question 2 is a hodgepodge of seven largely unrelated and somewhat minor items -- all under the umbrella of "elections and government administration." These include: requiring disclosure of independent expenditures designed to influence elections; making it easier for potential candidates to qualify for the ballot; merging the Voter Assistance Commission and Campaign Finance Board; small changes in the conflicts of interest law; setting up a procedure to waive a government reporting requirement; administrative changes in city tribunals; and putting transportation and waste management facilities on the city's facilities siting map.

Gotham Gazette's coverage:

Following the Money: As anonymous donors expand their role in national politics, New Yorkers on Tuesday will decide whether to require more disclosure of who provides campaign cash in city elections.

Unfinished Business: The latest effort to revise the City Charter barely scratched the surface, writes Scott Stringer, and so the mayor should name another commission.

Term Limits -- in 2021: The Charter Commission took steps to undo the damage done by the extension of term limits, writes commission member Anthony P. Cassino, but did not go far enough.

Making 'Fair Share' Fairer: A proposal on the ballot in November would help spread polluting facilities more evenly around the city, Eddie Bautista writes.

Keeping the Clout: Despite pleas to limit the mayor's power, the city charter commission opted to increase it in at least one area, Glenn Pasanen contends.

Charter To-Do List: After six months of hearings, the Charter Revision Commission has decided to put term limits on the ballot this fall. But many, many other issues were left off.

Who Helps Candidates: Last year, labor and business called and canvassed to boost candidates but never had to reveal who did what for whom. Now an effort is building to close that gap in election law.

A Tiny Agency: As advocates and officials seek ways to increase meager Election Day turnout in the city, some say the solution could lie with a little-noticed and sparsely funded commission.

Judges

Voters in some parts of the city will elect State Supreme Court and Civil Court Judges. Unlike in many states, the Supreme Court here is not the highest court -- that distinction belongs to the Court of Appeals -- but the court of general jurisdiction, which hears both criminal cases and civil cases involving any monetary dispute over $75,000.

Many of the races for judge, particularly on the civil court are uncontested.

Voters in Manhattan, though, have six candidates vying for three Supreme Court seats. In that contest, the New York City Bar Association, which lists candidates as "approved" or "not approved" without further explanation, approves all the Democratic candidates: Matthew Cooper, Cynthia Kern and Jeffrey Oing. The three Republicans -- Karin Burke, George Janis and Jodi Mosiello -- were "not approved."

All the Civil Court candidates in the Manhattan are unopposed.

In the Bronx, the contest for Supreme Court features three candidates. But it's not the true race voter might expect. Two of the candidates -- Republican Rick Lazio and Conservative Thomas Ognibene -- appear on the ballot largely as part of a maneuver to get them off the ballot for governor and lieutenant governor respectively. Both men had received party nominations (Lazio winning the conservative nod for governor; Ognibene being the sole candidate of the Taxpayers Party candidate for lieutenant governor), and the only way to remove a candidate from the ballot after the primary is for the candidate to die or be nominated for a judgeship. Both men obviously preferred the latter. Neither is expected to win in the overwhelmingly Democratic Bronx against the Democrat Edgar Walker. Walker and Lazio are rated as approved by the bar; Ognibene is not.

In the one Civil Court contest in the Bronx -- in district 2-- the Democrat, Linda Poust Lopez, is approved; Republican/Conservative Daniel Szalkiewicz is not.

In Brooklyn, nine candidates will square off for four Supreme Court seats. Of them only three -- Sylvia Ash (Democrat, Republican), Deborah Dowling (Democrat, Republican, Conservative) and (Democrat, Republican, Conservative) get a thumbs up from the bar. The other six -- Conservatives James Domagalski and Giovanni Silvagni; Francois Rivera, a sitting judge who appears on the Democratic and Republican lines; and Working Families Party candidates Elon Harpaz, Kenneth Schaeffer and Amy Young -- all were "not approved."

The countywide Civil Court contest pits Democrat Harriet Thompson against Republican/Conservative Vincent Martusciello. Neither was approved.

None of the court races in Queens are contested, and there are no judicial elections on Staten Island this year.

How to Vote

This is take two for the city's new voter system. While the city Board of Elections thinks it passed the first one -- on primary day -- many voters and city officials disagree. The day was marked by delayed poll site openings, equipment malfunctions and complaints about a lack of privacy.

The board says it has addressed some of these issues, notably the problem with poll sites that did not open on time. But the general election will bring out many more voters -- many of whom will be using the new technology for the first time. Some voting experts fear there may not be enough trained poll workers to handle their queries and difficulties.

The new system, for those who did not vote last time, involves marking a paper ballot. Contrary to the latest instructions from the board, voters should fill in the bubble beneath (not above) the candidate of their choice. If a candidate appears on multiples lines -- Democratic and Working Families Party say -- a voter must choose which line to vote for the candidate on. And anyone who wants to weigh in on the charter questions, must flip the ballot over.

Voters can request a privacy sleeve for their ballot and a magnifier if they need it. Any voter also can opt to use the ballot marking devices, which are required at every polling place. Although these are intended primarily to help people with disabilities vote privately and independently, any voter can use one.

Once the ballot is completed, voters then place it in a scanner for it to be counted and recorded. The ballot is not returned to the voter after being scanned.

For more on how to vote, see the instructions -- including a video -- on the Board of Elections web site.

Some of the city's civic groups have issued a troubleshooting guide that aims to tell voters what they can do to avoid or deal with problems such as those on primary day. They also have compiled five tips for voters. Among other things, the groups advise voter to ask to use the ballot marking devices, designed to enable handicapped voters cast ballots independently, if they think this would be helpful, and remind voters to turn to the ballot's back side if they want to weigh in on the charter questions.

When and Where to Vote

The election will be Tuesday, Nov. 2, with polls open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Only residents who have already registered can vote.

You should have received a notice in the mail telling you where to vote, but if you do not have it, you can go to the Board of Election's poll site locator or call 1 866 VOTE-NYC. This number can provide you with other information as well, including registration deadlines.

Absentee ballot applications can be obtained by calling the Board of Elections at 1-866-VOTE-NYC or e-mailing a request to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

New Yorkers who registered to vote for the first time via mail may be asked to provide identification, such as a driver's license, when they arrive at the polls. Voters without a driver's license can also offer a valid photo ID, current utility bill, bank statement, or government check or other government document that shows the voter's name and address. If a poll worker says you are not on the list, ask an inspector to verify that you are at the correct Election and Assembly District for your address. If you believe that you are eligible to vote, you can ask for an affidavit ballot. After the election, the Board of Elections will check its records and your vote will be counted if you are deemed eligible to vote and were at the correct polling site.

If you run into problems at your polling place -- if it's not open, for example, or the scanners are not working, the Board of Elections advises calling its office as soon as possible at 1-866-VOTE-NYC.